Published 21 October 2021 at 20.51
Home page. In 1021 – that is, exactly a thousand years ago – Vikings lived in North America. It shows a new study published in Nature, reports SVT Nyheter Vetenskap.
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The fact that northerners discovered and settled on the American continent centuries before Christopher Columbus has long been known.
But only now have researchers managed to produce a more specific year for colonization – thank you be an ancient solar storm.
– The discovery is very exciting, as it manages to date the settlement to a specific year. The new method of dating will mean a lot to archeology, says archaeologist John Ljungkvist at Uppsala University to SVT.
In 1021, the Vikings had settlements in Newfoundland in Canada, the researchers can establish using new methods.
Researchers at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, have analyzed traces of what they interpret as a massive solar storm in 992. The solar storm left behind radioactive colisotopes in the growing trees. By analyzing pieces of wood from trees that the Vikings cut down, it is possible to say exactly what year the tree was felled.
The Vikings cut down the trees with metal leaves, a technique that was unknown to the natives at the site when the Vikings arrived. .